by Rain Oxford
Shiloh was preventing arguments between Ghidorah and Edward, but somehow they came to peace when the food was ready. I almost wanted Ghidorah and Edward to go at it so Ghidorah would be forced to leave, but that would really upset Dylan and Shiloh was great at keeping the peace. The man had a lot of inner calmness. Actually, it was mostly that Shiloh would spew logical explanations and reasons for peace until Edward and Ghidorah had to walk away from each other just to get out of earshot.
There has to be a way to get rid of Ghidorah. Rojan was off again about it.
What is your problem with him?
I know what he is. He is trouble. He is dangerous. Dylan trusts him because he is a Guardian, but the Guardian in him is secondary to Ghidorah.
Ghidorah looked right at me and I felt as if he heard us. Rojan stopped talking.
“What are you?” I asked him. Dylan studied the giant Guardian, obviously just as interested.
Ghidorah grinned. “You cannot tell with your dragon senses? You have dragon blood in you,” he said.
I didn’t ask how he knew. “You have a scent that blocks my senses. I can’t smell what you are, I can’t smell your intentions, I can’t even smell if you tell a lie or not. That makes you a threat to Dylan, which makes you a problem. Rojan doesn’t like you or trust you.”
“I figured your dragon would dislike me.”
“Everyone from Skrev is a beast or has one in them. Rojan said you don’t have a beast inside you, so what are you?”
He opened his mouth to speak when Azyle and Emrys appeared right beside him. Azyle’s eyes locked onto Dylan. “My book is in danger,” he said with no preamble. “I had a warning from my book. Vretial is back and he’s coming after us harder than ever. I have not been able to contact any of the Guardians or Roshne.”
Everyone stood. “Vretial is not back,” Ghidorah said.
Azyle took a step back as if he hadn’t realized he was right next to the grumpy Guardian. Emrys sighed and stepped between them. “Vretial is back. I had a warning also.”
“When?” Dylan asked. “I talked to you just a few hours ago.”
“What?” Emrys asked, his expression of utmost confusion. “I haven’t seen you in months,” he said. I inhaled deeply on instinct and started choking on Ghidorah’s scent. I shifted my eyes and immediately shifted them back because Ghidorah was overshadowing everyone else.
Dylan put his hands on my shoulders as if to steady me.
“I can’t do anything with Ghidorah here!” I yelled in frustration. Most of it was Rojan’s ire and I hadn’t meant to yell.
“Let me see,” Dylan said.
I shook my head. “We both spoke with you earlier,” I said to Emrys. “You saved us from some fish monster, we talked, and then you contacted your god.”
“I haven’t spoken with Madus in a month.” His honesty was apparent in his voice, though I felt doubtful just because I couldn’t back it up with a scent.
“He’s telling the truth,” Edward said. “Emrys has a tell when he’s lying. Maybe something messed with his memories. Was he acting strange when you saw him?”
“Yes. Very strange,” Dylan said, then turned to me. “I’m going to talk to Madus.” The instant the words were out of his mouth, he vanished. No light, no nothing… He was just gone. I didn’t like that, and neither did Rojan.
Edward frowned. “He just took off. Why would he actually leave to contact a god? We travel to other worlds, but not to the gods.”
“Astrophysical travel is how we normally do it,” Emrys added. “Hello, Sammy. Do you remember me?” He greeted the boy as if Dylan hadn’t just disappeared.
Sammy smiled. “Hello, Emmy. I remember. I threw you in the water when you wouldn’t stop fighting. Ron, this is Emmy, Guardian of Malta. He’s good like Shiloh.” Once Sammy said he was good, Ron held out his hand to shake Emrys’s.
“I never got an introduction,” Ghidorah grumbled.
Sammy tilted his head a little bit. “You are dangerous. Ron is not allowed near people who are dangerous. He’s too little. Dad brought you here because you are good, but he told me to keep Ron away. He said to keep Mordon away too, because Rojan might eat you.”
When did he say that?
More importantly, Sammy didn’t call you his nickname. He must distrust the creature as well… Good child.
Sammy said he never thought of me as his mother, but he kept the nickname because only those who spoke English would even understand it. When he was very young, he had a problem associating words, especially with names. It never bothered me as much as I pretended it did, but I didn’t want him saying it to strangers. Besides, I was hoping he would start calling Divina his mother.
Dylan appeared. “Madus said he hadn’t spoken to Emrys. That means it wasn’t something that affected Emrys’s memories.”
So many people had appeared and disappeared in the last few hours that I wasn’t really surprised when Samorde appeared. “Oh, no, I did it again,” he declared, fumbling with his hands. He realized he was surrounded and backed up a few steps, but when his eyes landed on Emrys, he shrieked, dropped to his knees, and covered his head with his hands. “Don’t kill me! I didn’t mean to come here!”
Emrys didn’t let him finish his plead. The man who I knew to be very calm charged the little Guardian. Edward threw a shield of energy up around the Guardian who was cowering on the ground while Shiloh tried to hold Emrys back. When Emrys threw a plasma ball, it reflected off Edward’s shield and hit Azyle.
Dylan had had enough. With one wave of his hand, an energy bubble went up all around Emrys, throwing Shiloh off him, and the man’s power failed. Dylan looked angry for good reason. “Do you know how close that came to hitting Sammy?!” he yelled. Everyone shrunk back as they realized how horrible everything could have gone in one moment.
“I didn’t mean to---”
“I don’t care what you meant to do! I don’t care what you two have between you, you keep it away from my boys!” Everyone waited for him to continue, unsure what the best move was. If Dylan decided someone wasn’t worth the trouble they caused, he had the power to strip them of their magic and the gods to back him up. He was more dangerous than any of us. “Samorde, get off the ground.” He did as he was told while shaking violently. “Emrys, if you attack anyone with magic in the presence of my children again, unless it is to protect them, I will strip you of all magic and tell Madus he needs to find a new Guardian. This is your only warning. Am I understood?”
“Yes, Dylan.”
Dylan collapsed his energy bubble. “I’m going to bed.” He went inside. The boys looked to me and Edward for direction, but we were at a loss, so they trailed after him.
I cleaned up the dinner while Edward got several tents out of the shed. Apparently his hospitality did not extend to the other Guardians. The boys took the beds while Dylan, Edward, Meri, and I camped out in the main room. My mind raced as I tried to sleep, but it helped that my nose cleared a bit. Dylan was still awake as well and I knew his mind was spinning, trying to find patterns and figure out anything he might have missed.
* * *
I woke to the horrible sound of arguing, which irritated Rojan immensely. When I heard physical fighting, I opened my eyes and sat up. Edward was missing, but Dylan and Meri were still asleep. I got up and went outside, shutting the door quietly behind me. It was sunrise, there were few clouds in the sky, and although the forest cast a shadow over the yard, the light blue sky promised a warm day. Just not for me.
Ghidorah and Edward were snarling at each other like draxuni. Two tents had been flattened and several areas of grass were scorched. Samorde cowered between Shiloh and Azyle, but it looked like they were guarding him from being hurt in the battle.
Rojan took over smoothly, actively preventing my eyes from shifting. “You are acting like children,” he said, not loudly. Edward and Ghidorah stopped fighting and everyone turned their attention to me. Rojan, just from his sheer incredible age, had that effect on peopl
e. “Each of you has more than a thousand years of life experience, and every one of you except for Kiro was born to protect your worlds and its people, yet you fight as if you are enemies. When one of you is attacked, or when your gods begin to mistrust you, you all scatter or turn on each other.”
It was Edward who spoke up. “We were not meant to get along. We all have our own worlds that we defend. We all have our own problems to deal with.”
“Then why does Dylan live on Duran, not even an hour away from your territory?”
“That’s different. It’s always been different with him. He’s Ronez’s son. Hell, he’s a different kind of Guardian all together.”
“But you are fighting against his cause, and Shiloh’s. Shiloh wants the council so that when the gods turn against their Guardians like some did four years ago, the Guardians can keep open the lines of communication. Dylan only wants to bring the Guardians together so that when one of you is in trouble, or when your world is in trouble, the others can help.”
“We do not need help defending our worlds,” Ghidorah argued.
“Nano is missing. Who is protecting his world? Where is his book? When Shiloh lost his power, what good could he do? When you disappeared from your world four years ago, Dylan was the one to save it. Dylan was the one to save everyone. I saw every time he was there and you were not. Now you want to stand here and tell me you can defend your world on your own?”
“Dylan is too young; he does not understand,” Ghidorah said.
Rojan snarled. “I am thousands of years old. I was born when dragons could not even shift and Duran was still young. I understand. Maybe it is you who is too young.”
Wait, I saw you as a child. I saw you in person form as a child.
Where do you think the dragons learned to shift from? My family was the first to shift. We learned to do it because we were powerful, not out of necessity like the rest of them. That is the reason we are royalty to the others.
I heard the door open behind me and felt Dylan approach. He put his hand on my shoulder and laid his chin on his hand. My friend was a goofball when he was tired. “Morning, Rojan,” Dylan mumbled. He always knew when it was me or Rojan.
“Uncanny. Good morning, Dylan. Are the boys still sleeping?”
“Uh huh. Where is Emrys?”
“He has not woken yet,” Shiloh said. He paused and frowned. “Wait, that is odd. Emrys is an early riser. I will go check on him.” He went around the cabin, for we had decided the previous night to keep Emrys and Samorde’s tents as far away from each other as possible. After a moment, Shiloh returned. “We have a problem.”
Emrys was gone and his tent was torn violently, as if by a predator. I tried to scent for anything, but Ghidorah had joined us and my nose was stuffed up again. When he leaned past me to peer inside, I fell over with the force of my sneezing. Every inhale made it worse and I couldn’t catch my breath. He looked at me like I was nuts, but Dylan pulled me away from him.
“What are you doing? Why is he allergic to you?” my friend demanded.
“I have no idea why he is reacting like that. I am wearing nothing he should react to and never met someone allergic to me. Now, if we can continue, you should look inside here. I would myself, but…” Ghidorah said, trailing off. Obviously his size made it difficult for him to move around without contaminating the scene and any evidence we would otherwise find.
Dylan looked inside the tent. “What am I looking for?”
“Blood. I smell blood.”
Dylan entered, carefully watching where he stepped. After flipping through the blankets for a few minutes, he sighed. “I can’t find---” He was cut off as the blanket caught around his foot and he fell. “Oh, shit.”
“What?” I asked, trying to see inside while keeping as far away from Ghidorah as possible. Dylan lifted his hand, covered in blood.
“It was under his pillow. Oh, god, I need to wash this off.” He got out and held his hand away from himself. Shiloh shrieked like a girl and ducked behind Azyle, who rolled his eyes. Shiloh cowered further away as Dylan approached him.
“Are you afraid of blood?”
“It is dirty.”
“All Vaigdans are afraid of blood,” Azyle clarified.
Edward handed Dylan a cloth from his bag and Shiloh tossed a small bottle of oil at him. “Please wash with that, it kills the germs.” Dylan did so with no fuss and threw the cloth in the trash by the campfire. When Shiloh refused to take the bottle back, Dylan put it in his bag.
“Emrys was attacked. It appears to be an animal attack, but I hardly think a Guardian could so easily be killed. Besides, if he were dragged off by anything, there would be a smear of blood. So either he walked away, he was wrapped up in something, or he was taken by magic.” We all collaborated around the dead fire. “I’m going to search for his presence on Duran. You guys need to hold still because of how powerful you are. It’s hard to spot a particular fish in a fish pond,” Dylan said.
He closed his eyes to focus and I could feel his energy pulsing out. Azyle and Shiloh shuddered, but Edward and I were used to the feel of his magic. All of the Guardians were powerful, but Dylan had an innocent, unassuming aura with a deeper, incredibly powerful force. If I didn’t know him so well, I would have worried, since I could never feel just how powerful he really was because he used nominal energy like the other Guardians. Someone could confuse him with a docile Guardian or even just a wizard… until his true power came out. Dylan was very peaceful until his family was threatened, and then the worlds themselves were at his mercy.
After a few minutes, Dylan’s magic receded and he opened his eyes. “He is nowhere on Duran, but something is calling me. Someone is calling me.”
“Could it be Vretial?” I asked.
He shook his head. “Someone in trouble. I’m going to go check it out. Make sure the boys brush their teeth, because I’m pretty sure they didn’t last night,” he said to Edward, before turning to me.
I knew by his expression that he was determined to go alone. “Wait, you’re taking me with you,” I said. “They don’t need me here.”
“I disagree that they don’t need you. I think when push comes to shove, they will turn on each other.”
“Then why are you trying to get them together?”
“Because I think after they turn on each other, they will get their heads on straight and pull together. I know you hate it, but you were trained to manage people. These guys are so much older than you, but not Rojan. They don’t need to be led, they need to be directed.”
“That’s the same thing.”
“It’s not the same thing. However, I didn’t plan on you staying here now. I think you’re needed somewhere else.”
I sighed, knowing exactly what he was thinking. We were getting stares from the others. “Whatever my father is up to, I can deal with it later. You can’t go after someone you don’t know without backup.”
“If I need help, I can flash back. It may already be too late for your father. You said he was always getting himself into trouble. You have protected him your entire life, no matter how much he ridiculed you. Are you really going to leave him on his own now?”
“If your mother dated a man you knew would beat her to death, after everything she did to you would you help her?”
“Yes,” he said without hesitation. “As horrible as she was to me, that was just who she was. She’s my mother, and if she needed me… I couldn’t refuse to help her just in spite. Besides, she wanted to get rid of me, whereas your father does love you.”
I sighed again. “Can you flash me to him?” I asked aloud.
“I could, but I have no idea what situation he may be in. I don’t want to flash you in the middle of a battle. I could flash you to the castle and you could ask someone there where he is. Hopefully he would be on Mokii, or you would need a boat.”
“I can’t be gone for days. You might have trouble if Guardians are being targeted.”
“I can flash to you.
If you’re not back by the time I am, I’ll find you. And say hello to the sycophant for me,” he said, referring to my father’s adviser.
“What are you talking about?” Azyle asked.
“I’m going to find someone who needs help, and Mordon’s going on holiday,” Dylan said. The bright flash was expected; Dylan loved that kind of parting speech.
* * *
I appeared alone in the throne room of my father’s castle, but people were not far away. In fact, Rojio was coming closer.
Sit on the throne, Rojan commanded.
No way.
Rojio will try to lecture you about running away. You need to bypass that and get him to do what he’s told. You need impact. Just sit down, talk loud, and ask your questions as if they were orders.
I sat. The throne was designed for my father, but I always thought it was too big for him. Due to my dragon blood and years of hard work on Shomodii, I was a fair amount more built than the king, and the throne fit me too well. Like a noose.
It was obsessively tall and lined with dark blue satin. The wooden sides of the backrest was studded with sapphires and etched with meticulous designs. There was nothing feminine about the throne, but it was over-the-top in elegance.
The huge room itself was simpler. Sturdy wooden walls accented with swords, crests, and an unpretentious tapestry made the room appear masculine and substantial. Obviously the room was designed to draw attention to the chair and the man in it.
Rojio burst into the room with an air of noble significance. He had always appeared to be put-together and proper, while also extremely busy and important. He honestly believed that the entire kingdom would fall apart without him. In fact, he hadn’t even been my father’s adviser for that long; he was only a stand in for his older brother who was always leaving the castle on assignments. As it turned out, Sade was building an alliance to stand against my father and Rojio was expendable.